How to backup with LTO Ultrium 2
 

hey all

i have a Dell Dimension 5200 and a Dell PowerVault 114T, using the LTO Ultrium 2 taape drive. currently, its running Windows Server 2000, but will not do scheduled backups for whatever reason (probably cos MS is the suck!). anyhoo, im wanting to set up a linux distro, not fussed which, but needs to be free (im very familiar with Fedora and RHEL), that will enable me to schedule backups to tape.

can anyone (YOU!) gimme a couple of suggestions as to what distro to use and how to set up the scheduling.

k tks bai

You ought to be able to do it with just about any linux distribution. Pick the one you like the best or are most comfortable with. Then ... scheduling backups to tape ... sounds like you need software, and you've indicated you want something free. Given the tape drive you have, I'm assuming you have other computers to back up?

My personal choice would be Amanda

http://www.linuxquestions.org/bookmarks/tags/amanda

It is an outstanding backup scheduler and works with native utilities and formats without having to install a bunch of other stuff to get it running. I like it at least in part because it takes care of managing everything with little or no intervention on my part, and it recovers gracefully from a lot of error situations. Just as an example, today I forgot it was running late and decided to shuffle some tapes in the library. I ejected the tape right out from under Amanda. It noted the error, rounded up and catalogued all the pieces of the backups, and sent me an email summarizing the results and advising me that it would finish flushing the backups to tape when a tape was available. Gotta love it.